Black Enterprise, July 2006

Black Enterprise, July 2006
Special Report
The 40 Best companies For Diversity
http://www.aramark.com/RelatedFiles/Best%20Companies%20for%20Diversity%20article_July%2020061.pdf
[full-text, 16 pages]

[excerpts]
“There is no one to hold them accountable, not even the corporations with good diversity records,” explains Christopher Metzler, director of diversity management & EEO studies at Cornell University, who also established the country’s first diversity certification program. “Unlessan industry is publicly chagrinned through a major successful litigation, or an advocacy group were to embarrass them on the public stage, the selfmotivation simply does not exist.”
....
Though current charges against the advertising industry may be its impetus to change, Metzler believes that the industry needs to be educatedon how these changes benefit everyone. “The advertising industry clearly does not believe that there is value in diversity,” he says. “They have been unable to understand the value proposition for diversity.”
...
But the experts do believe there are ways to strengthen our position. All say that corporations have to play a bigger role in changing the attitudes of the industry. “If corporations would say to these ad agencies, ‘We’re going to look and see how well you’re doing diversity in terms of what minority agencies you use and the ranks of your own organization [as] a significant part of our evaluation,’ you would see a seismicshift,” says Metzler.